Substitute Teachers

Let me start by saying that I hate having a sub. It is much easier to go to work sick than to deal with a sub. It was especially bad when I had multiple preps (I taught Spanish 3, advanced 3, 4, AP 4, IB 4, AP 5, and IB 5) because the sub had a tendency to give the handouts to the wrong classes. When I have a sub I have to deal with a messy classroom, writing up students for their behavior, trusting the sub required the students to follow my rules (must be in their assigned seat, no electronic devices, no food/drink/perfume, etc), and having no idea until later if the sub gave the correct directions (paper A is due before class ends, paper B is due tomorrow, etc).

Today and tomorrow I have required training all day so I had no choice but to get a sub. I returned to my classroom at the end of the day and I am NOT happy. Here's what went wrong while I was out:

• The sub did not leave any notes for me so that makes me assume all of my classes were little angels. I really don't think that's true.
• No one was marked tardy. Again, I don't think that's true.
• There were food wrappers littering my floor which means students were eating in class. That's not allowed in any classroom at my school.
• There was a pencil stuck in my ceiling which means my students definitely were not angelitos but the sub didn't tell me.
• A few of the tennis balls that were on the bottom of the chairs were scattered about the room. Again, the sub did not leave a note saying students were playing with the tennis balls.
• Some papers were paper clipped and on my desk and others were in the turn-in box. My instructions said the students should turn in everything to the turn-in tray. I have no clue why the papers were separated.

What tops this all off is that I have the same sub tomorrow. We are short subs so there is nothing I can do about it. That means that tomorrow I will once again find myself on my hands and knees cleaning the broken pencils, food wrappers, crumpled papers, etc from my floor. Also, the students have a quiz tomorrow. The good news is that they can use notes so I don't have to worry about the sub watching for much cheating. However, I have a strict no talking/whispering and no electronic device while any quizzes are out. I have the distinct feeling that the sub won't write down the names of those who talk or use electronic devices.

Well, as you might have noticed, I like to end on a happy note. I won $100 in school supplies from GoGuardian! They are a company that makes software that allows me to monitor my students' computer use while they are in my class. I entered a drawing about a month or two ago and I got the news today that I won! They will buy me $100 worth of school supplies from my Amazon wish list. I filled it with pencils and lines paper. Specifically I will receive 3 grosses of quality pencils and 150 sheets of paper. I ration my pencils; I add two pencils to my "borrow box" everyday and almost everyday by 4pm that box is empty. I'll still have that problem but at least it won't cost me anything. :)

Yay!

-Clare G. S.

Kermit Flail

How I feel on most days. :/

Life has been hectic. I am almost well again. I still have a cough and my sinuses are still bothering me a bit. I'm kind of sad because I can't sing in my normal range. I'm basically stuck as a tenor right now so that means no singing in the choir until my vocal chords heal.

I guess the biggest news I have is that my students took their first unit test . . . and it was awful. My overall average was 58%. That includes the student who made a 0 (yes, he filled in the entire multiple choice test and made a 0), the student who answered only one question out of 15, and the students who obviously filled in random bubbles or all C. On the bright side, the school-wide average when you take out my students was about 68% so my guys are not terribly far behind. What really bothers me is that we offer test corrections. The students had about 25 minutes on Wednesday to work on corrections and otherwise they had to come in after school. I made it very clear that Friday was the absolute last day for corrections (except those who have been absent). I had just over 1/3 of my students do the corrections. The test corrections walk you through what to do! They can use notes, calculators, and ask me questions while they work on it! There was no reason anyone should 1. pass up this opportunity to raise their grade and 2. get below a 50 on the test after corrections.

I am up-to-date on all of my grading so tomorrow I'm going to make calls home to all of my students who have below a 60 in my class. If I have time, I will also call those that have a 60-75 since that is failing (but close to passing) or borderline. I'm too ashamed to tell you how many phone calls I will need to make.

I need to update y'all on the retaining wall but it's a mess as well. The short story is that it looks like we will be taking our contractor to court for theft. We paid him for some jobs that he never did and now he refuses to do. The good news is that we are very good about keeping a "nest egg" so if we lose that money it will hurt but we will be able to make it.

Let's end on a positive note: I started to flip my classroom on Friday. Most of my students said that they liked video notes better than me lecturing because they can go at their own pace. I had one student complain that I talk too much in the videos. I pointed out that the videos are less than 15 minutes long. When I lecture, it's 20-25 minutes so I'm actually talking less in the videos. Another student said he didn't like the videos because then he couldn't ask questions. I pointed out that it's easier to ask questions because now he doesn't have to feel like he is stopping the whole class. Plus, I now have more class time to answer those questions in detail. Basically, for every "hater" I was able to explain why flipped learning was better. Here's hoping it's a success! :D

-Clare G. S.

I'm not quite dead yet

I feel a bit like the guy on the shoulders

I apologize for the hiatus. Life last week was crazy and then I caught a cold. I've decided that I need to change the days I post. Wednesday is too crazy; I have choir rehearsal and sometimes I have all-staff meeting which leaves very little time for writing. I'm going to try writing Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday since I don't have any regular commitments on those days.

The reason why last week was so nuts was partially because I had hall duty. That means that for 20 minutes before classes begin each morning I had to stand in the cafeteria and make sure none of the students acted like fools. It's boring but I understand the need for it. We have a rotating schedule so last week was it until the next grading period. Unfortunately, that took away 20 vital minutes in my day. That's when I make copies, take work to ISS, and answer e-mails.

Well, it wouldn't have been so bad if things didn't seem to pop up during my conference each day. Someone from Texas Instruments (they make the calculator we use) came by to talk and see if I needed help. She's a wonderful person but I just didn't have time that day for an in-person talk. However, that was the only day she was on our campus. Another day I walked work to ISS, came back to my room and found out that another student had just been sent to ISS and needed her work. I took her work over and then I had to go to a secretary to drop off work for a student who was out sick for the week. I got my exercise that day!

It all really came to a grinding halt on Friday when I woke up with a bit of a sore throat. By Saturday morning I was miserable. I definitely had caught a cold. Sunday was pretty bad but I decided to go to work today anyway. Looking back, it probably would have been wiser to stay home. I really hate having a sub because it usually means more work when I get back.

The good news is that tomorrow my students have a test so that means I can rest my voice a bit. Here's hoping they do well!

-Clare G. S.

P.S. - No walking recently because I wasn't feeling well. :(

Vacation?

I almost forgot to write today so I'm going to keep this short. Today was not a vacation day for me. Sure, I didn't have classes but I worked from 10am-6pm and then 7:30pm-9pm. I even went to the school and made some copies. However, I did get to spend some quality time with my husband on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We celebrated his birthday by going to dinner with his sister and her husband. I made a yummy carrot cake (his favorite). That cake is gone now lol.

Yesterday my husband and I saw Kubo and the Two Strings. It was so good! The only thing I didn't like was Matthew McConaughey as the Beetle. I can't even describe why I disliked it. His voice just didn't seem to match the character. My husband thinks that there should have been more back story for the Moon King and the aunts but I didn't think that was really necessary. Visually it was AMAZING. It's stop motion with some computer graphics for the backgrounds mostly. The music is beautiful. In fact, I plan on buying the soundtrack so that I can play it in my classroom. If you like Japanese culture, this movie will put a smile on your face.

Time for my measurements! If you follow me on Twitter (@ClareG161) you may have seen that I was pleasantly surprised with my weight. The other measurements are moving in the right direction as well! :D

• Weight: -10lbs!
• Bust: -1.5"
• Band: -1"
• Natural waist: -3"
• Waist: -1/2"

-Clare G. S.

3 Day Weekend Ahead!

Week two as a math teacher is over! It was definitely a roller coaster of a week. The good news is that it ended pretty well. I need to remember in the future to see if my students who are causing trouble are athletes. Those coaches know how to reach the kids! Sports are very important to many of the kids so if the coach says, "If you don't start behaving in class you won't play" the kids magically find a way to behave.

The real problem with dealing with disruptive students is that it is negatively affecting my health. :( I have a sensitive stomach and apparently I have been more anxious about this than I thought. I have woken up feeling sick to my stomach every day this week. What doesn't help is that I have these problem students near the end of the day so I spend the entire morning thinking, "Everything is fine now but in a few hours I have to be prepared." It's really hard to stop myself thinking that way! I need to enjoy my classes because really a majority of them are awesome! In the couple of classes where I have trouble it's just a few students who are causing the trouble and I'm working hard on finding what makes them tick so that I can motivate them to do their work and not bother others. If any of you have good ideas to reduce anxiety, let me know! Please don't suggest yoga. I've tried it a few times and I feel ridiculous and everyone else in the class seems to take it waaaaay too seriously.

I'm still not exercising as much as I would like but I'm hoping that this long weekend will help. My plan of attack is to take a nice long walk tomorrow morning and Monday morning. I want to use this weekend to get ahead in my work so that I have the time to exercise. I am still not finding much time to eat lunch which worries me a little. I didn't even realize how little I ate today until I sat down to dinner! My breakfast was just an apple, I had a granola bar for a mid-morning snack, and lunch was half of a Hot Pocket. That's got to be fewer than 500 Calories in total.

I almost forgot to talk about my husband's birthday! Yesterday he turned 30 and I had a funny little gift for him. I should preface this story by saying that my husband and I don't really buy each other gifts anymore because we like to save our money so that we can go on trips. We agree that we would rather spend money doing fun things together than on trinkets that we don't really need. If we happen to find something small that we think the other would especially enjoy we go ahead and purchase it. Well, my husband loves Fruit by the Foot. Specifically, he likes the flavor "Berry Tie Dye". Unfortunately the grocery store only sells variety packs so he ends up eating a bunch he doesn't really like just to get to the ones he enjoys. I thought he would get a kick out of receiving a few boxes of just his favorite flavor. After a lot of online shopping I found out that Walmart had the best price. About two weeks before his birthday I ordered the boxes. Well, the week before his birthday I picked up the shipment and they were all the variety packs. I contacted Walmart and they re-sent the correct items without charging me extra. It was cutting it close because it was supposed to come in the day before his birthday. On his birthday I ran up to Walmart and lo and behold they sent variety packs again. I was not happy. Luckily my husband and I have a good sense of humor because we are now stuck with 120 Fruit by the Foot (10 boxes of 12). I think we are set for after school snacks for the next couple of months.

9 of the 10 boxes we now own

-Clare G. S.